Top 5 Apps for Listening to and Discovering Music

While the music industry is ever-changing, it has changed drastically over the past several years as legal streaming services began to replace physical albums sold, and music became instantly available through YouTube or a number of apps. The team at MobileFOMO attended the San Francisco Music Tech conference yesterday and learned about a plethora of music apps. In no particular order, here are the top apps to discover and listen to music:

​1. Shazam

Are you ever in a store and you find yourself moving to a beat without even realizing it? You think to yourself “What is this incredible song?” You can find your answer with the simple download of Shazam, an app that recognizes music and media (such a TV shows or movies) playing around you. With this app, you’re able to create playlists or even run Shazam in the background with no hit to the battery on iOS. It’s available for free download in iOS and Android.

2. 8Tracks

Unlike popular streaming sites like Pandora, 8Tracks allows users instead of algorithms to create playlists of 8 or more songs from its internet library. Explore playlists that reflect the mood you’re in or the genre you’re looking for, such as alternative, indie, chill, rock, etc. It’s interactive as you’re able to leave comments and see what other users think. Not only is this beneficial for fans to discover new artists and contribute feedback, but this is also beneficial for artists. David Porter, the CEO of 8Tracks, attended the San Francisco Music Tech summit yesterday and spoke on a Discovery panel. Porter said that 8Tracks gives artists information about the plays and fans by geography. This helps artists with their target marketing and to get to know where the fanbase is located and what kind of people they are.

Spotify, one of the most well-known digital music services, currently has 4o million active users, 10 million subscribers, 20 million songs and 58 countries. Spotify’s ambition is to be everywhere. The audience is mainly millennials (18-34) who are actively engaged. There are over a billion shares on Facebook, and the average user spends about 2 hours per day listening to music. Additionally, Spotify communicates with their top artists and tells them where the most streaming viewers are coming from.

Jay Z talked to @Spotify and found out that he was being streamed very heavily in Manchester, so he performed a show there. #sfmusictech

Rdio, the music streaming app most often compared to Spotify, offers ad-supported free streaming service and ad-free subscription services in 60 countries. It recently rolled out a new design on mobile which puts its free radio experience front and center. And today, Rdio made a huge announcement in which it slashed the costs of its family plan. The prices have been lowered to only $5 for each additional user, completely mirroring Spotify’s multi-user subscription pricing. While Rdio has offered Family Plan upgrades since 2011, cost is key: the music provider won’t want to give its users another incentive to jump across to its biggest competitor. In terms of data charges, Rdio allows you to change settings: only allow Wi-Fi streaming and syncing, or choose an offline mode to only play synced songs. When browsing your collection, Rdio lets you switch views between your full collection and synced-only albums. Rdio is available for free download on iOS and Android.

5. Pandora

Pandora is a free, personalized radio that “plays music you’ll love”. You can also create new stations, and rate songs using thumbs up and thumbs down. Pandora on mobile devices is fully integrated with Pandora on the web, so everything you create and personalize on your device appears next time you’re back on the web.

Meg Rahner
Writer
Meg is the PR Coordinator for CircleClick and a writer for MobileFOMO. She is from Erie, Pennsylvania and has a BA in Public Relations from Penn State University. She moved to San Francisco shortly after graduating in 2010 and loves life on the west coast. Since moving to SF, she has contracted for the Academy of Art University's Marketing team, LinkedIn's Recruiting Team, and is excited to be pursuing her passion for writing and PR in her current roles.
Follow me on twitter @megrahner